Stocks have risen at a 22 percent annual rate since the S&P 500 bottomed at 683 in March 2009. That sure beats sticking your money in a money market fund earning 0.48 percent. But is now the time to get into stocks or have their prices risen too far? Here are five reasons to bet on stocks.

1. Low interest rates

Interest rates have been near zero for the last five years. Sure, those rates have declined since August 2011, when ratings agencies downgraded the claims-paying ability of the United States.

Ironically, that downgrade marked a plunge in interest rates that boosted the value of bonds. Specifically, from May 2011 – before that downgrade -- until January 2013, the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury bond fell from 3.15 percent to as low as 1.5 percent and now stands at 2 percent. And that made bonds more valuable – making money for investors who parked cash there.

But with the economy showing some more signs of growth, interest rates are most likely to remain low and then go up as the economy accelerates and people go back to work. If interest rates go up, people will lose money in bonds.

And that fear of a bond bubble is driving cash out of bonds and further out into the risk frontier of buying stocks.

2. Apocalypse, huh?

Since January 2009, prognosticators have been predicting a variety of different kinds of apocalypses. With high volume, great emotional intensity, and tremendous frequency, the world has been bombarded with messages about the second coming of Christ, the end of the Mayan calendar, an economic collapse due to central banks printing money, the confiscation of everyone's gun collection due to tyranny, and a plunge in the U.S. economy due to the so-called fiscal cliff.

The results of the 2012 election suggest that most voters were smart enough to realize that all this scare talk fell flat. Moreover, President Obama's victory and his new tactics have defanged the effectiveness of political tactics designed to undermine the U.S. economy.

For example, by going to the American public, he did a nice job of resolving the issue of tax increases and a Republican effort to hold down the debt ceiling.

3. Clarity

All this mattes because pundits have spent the last four years braying about how uncertainty was holding back corporate investment. This discussion has been a repeated distraction – after all, uncertainty is always part of life, and that's why teaching managers how to cope with it is such a central part of the curriculum I teach.

But if companies are holding back from investing because of uncertainty about who will occupy the White House for the next four years, what will happen to tax rates, or whether the U.S. will default on its debts, there is no longer any reason for people to believe these things will happen.

4. Record corporate profits

By the way, despite all the whining about uncertainty, corporations have gone on to make record levels of profit every year since 2010. For example, according to the Department of Commerce, in the third quarter of 2012, corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6 percent from the year before – and that figure was higher than the 2011 and 2010 records.

In 2013, S&P 500 earnings are estimated to be heading for another record of $112.79, according to FactSet. If stocks are supposed to be based on the current value of future earnings, this means that stocks have more room to rise – especially since their prices trade at a Price/Earnings ratio of 13.3 – below the long-term average of 15.5.

5. Possible corporate investment boom

Finally, thanks to the plunge in uncertainty, there is a good chance that companies will start to spend the $2 trillion worth of cash that they've been piling up. And that capital could be invested in so-called enterprise technology.

A National Venture Capital Survey of 600 entrepreneurs and venture capitalists conducted between November 26 and December 7, 2012 reveals that many believe a shift in VC investment is underway that will benefit some sectors and hurt others.

Capital is expected to flow into start-ups that provide information technology (IT) to businesses. More specifically, 61 percent of respondents expected increased investment in Business IT.

This investment will boost corporate profit growth – and help the shares of companies that sell business IT products.

One thing to resist when you invest in stocks is to pay a broker or fund manager a fee. Instead, do what Vanguard founder Jack Bogle has long recommended – invest in a low-fee, low-expense S&P 500 index fund that matches the market.

I followed Mr. Bogle's advice and I will keep doing it. If the market keeps growing at a 22 percent annual rate, the Dow would rise to 17,000 this year. Even if it does not go up that much, the forces propelling stocks upwards are powerful.

Peter Cohan of Marlboro heads a management consulting and venture capital firm, teaches business strategy, and is the author of 11 books – most recently, “Hungry Start-up Strategy: Creating New Ventures with Limited Resources and Unlimited Vision.” His column runs Sundays and Wednesdays on telegram.com. His email address is peter@petercohan.com.

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